Photo: Jan Willem Kaldenbach

Hans van Manen receives Lifetime Achievement Award

22 August 2024

Dutch National Opera & Ballet is proud to announce that the German magazine tanz - Zeitschrift für Ballett, Tanz und Performance has awarded one of its Lifetime Achievement Awards to Hans van Manen, resident choreographer of Dutch National Ballet.

This is the first time the magazine has presented the Lifetime Achievement Awards. Alongside Hans van Manen, John Neumeier, who served as Artistic Director of the Hamburg Ballet for 51 years, also received an award. Both winners were announced in the 2024 Yearbook of tanz.

The magazine describes Hans van Manen as “one of the most prominent choreographers of our time” and writes: “Hans van Manen has modernised classical ballet, refined it, and shaped it into an elegant contemporary form. He is honoured for his beautiful, incomparable creations, for the minimalist stories with maximum impact with which he has revitalised European dance.”

Hans van Manen can add the tanz Lifetime Achievement Award to a long list of prizes and awards, including the Erasmus Prize, the Prix Benois de la Danse Life Achievement Award, the Grand Prix à la Carrière, the VSCD Oeuvre Prize, and the German Musikpreis.

Gabriele Klein, cultural scientist and the first professor of Ballet and Dance, holding the Hans van Manen Chair at the University of Amsterdam:
“Hans van Manen is a unique artist and individual. As a result, he has—consciously or unconsciously—avoided, bypassed, or ignored demands and expectations rather than fulfilling them. He does what he wants, regardless of the circumstances and even when others consider it excessive or strange. With his aesthetic, he revolutionised the dance stages of the 60s and 70s. [...] According to the Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet, he was a game-changer.”

Ted Brandsen - Director of Dutch National Ballet:
“It’s wonderful that Hans van Manen has been awarded one of the first Lifetime Achievement Awards by the influential magazine tanz—and of course, completely deserved. Hans is one of the greatest choreographers in the world, whose work has had an enormous influence, including in Germany, where several of his ballets will be performed by some of the most important companies next season. We are very proud and happy to have such a prominent artist in our midst. Congratulations, Hans!”

John Neumeier

The second Lifetime Achievement Award from tanz magazine goes to John Neumeier, choreographer and former Artistic Director of the Hamburg Ballet. Neumeier led the Hamburg Ballet for 51 years and choreographed a large number of ballets, including Sylvia and La Dame aux Camélias, both of which are part of Dutch National Ballet's repertoire. In 2019, at John Neumeier’s invitation, Dutch National Ballet also presented a Hans van Manen programme during the Hamburg Ballet Days.

Upcoming Season

Hans van Manen’s work will be featured next season at Dutch National Ballet as well as various international companies. Dutch National Ballet will perform Van Manen’s Four Schumann Pieces during the Generation Dance programme, which premieres on 11 September, and the Junior Company will present Visions Fugitives in theatres across the Netherlands from February, as part of the touring programme Made in NL. Additionally, Hans van Manen’s ballets will be performed in cities such as Hamburg, Düsseldorf, and Seoul, with both the San Francisco Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet presenting full Hans van Manen programmes next season.